Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A Fine "Fiddler"

Goodspeed Opera House is once again
doing what it does best: vividly brining to life an iconic American musical. In
this case it’s “Fiddler on the Roof,” which opened on Broadway in 1964 and
walked away with nine Tony awards. Under the sure-handed direction of Rob
Ruggiero, who has recently become the Opera House’s master of musicals, this
fine production makes you realize why “Fiddler” is so endearing and enduring –
yes, there are the songs that have become a part of the American Songbook, but
it’s the people originally created by Sholem Aleichem that make “Fiddler” shine
and resonate, and it is to Ruggiero’s credit that he has used the House’s
somewhat restrictive stage to focus on their humanity, transcending the idea
that this is a “Jewish” musical to emphasize that this is a show about fathers
and mothers, sons and daughters, regardless of their religious or ethnic
backgrounds.

Jen Brissman, Barrie Kreinick and Elizabeth DeRosa

With music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by
Sheldon Harnick and a book by Joseph Stein, “Fiddler” is set in the Pale of
Imperial Russia circa 1905, specifically the tiny village of Anatevka,
where Jews and ethnic Russians live together in uneasy peace. The focus is on
Tevye (Adam Heller) a poor milkman saddled with a somewhat shrewish wife, Golde
(Lori Wilner) and five daughters He is a humble (yet shrewd) man who suggests
in the opening number that he, his family, and the entire Jewish community are
like fiddlers on a roof, playing their individual parts while attempting to
maintain their balance in an ever-changing, often threatening world. A nice
touch here is that Ruggiero has brought the fiddler (Max Chucker) down from the
roof and involved him in many of the scenes as a counterpoint to the gaiety or
sadness and as a constant reminder to Tevye of the tenuousness of life.

Zero Mostel created the role of
Tevye on Broadway, after which Chaim Topol claimed the part as his own,
starring in the 1971 film adaptation. These are big shoes to fill, but Heller
does so with ease. His all-suffering, pragmatic Tevye is a bit less
demonstrative than Mostel’s and a bit less brooding than Topol’s, giving us a
hard-working dairyman who appreciates irony, hopes for the best, expects the
worst, and has a working yet argumentative relationship with his God, whom he
talks to on a regular basis (and who doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that God
never deigns to hold up His end of the conversation).

Adam Heller

Swirling around Tevye and his
family are several circles: the Jewish community in which he lives and, beyond
that, the Russian community that, at any moment, might choose to opt for brutal
persecution rather than benign disdain. This is a rich if somewhat troubled
tapestry filled with memorable characters, all created with a great deal of
sincerity by the cast. Tevye’s relationship with his wife, Golde, is especially
poignant, and Heller and Wilner create just the right sense of surface
antagonism beneath which hides an abiding love captured in the second act’s “Do
You Love Me?” -- perhaps the most moving moment in the show. I’ve seen this
musical many times but I can’t remember being so touched by this scene.

Adam Heller (Tevye) and Max Chuker (the Fiddler)

The musical is also about the
inevitability of change, and this is captured in three segments as each of
Tevye’s three oldest daughters approaches marriage. The first to be wed is
Tzeitel (Barrie Krenik), who is betrothed to the butcher, Lazar Wolf (John
Payonk), a May-September marriage arranged by the local marriage broker Yente
(Cheryl Stern). But Tzeitel loves the poor tailor Motel (David Perlman) and, in
a touching scene, begs her father to let them wed. In the first of his
“on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand” arguments with himself, Tevye finally
agrees, though it goes against tradition, and this leads to a wonderfully
staged scene in which Tevye must, by indirection, convince his wife that
Tzeitel should marry Motel. He does so with the assistance of two spirits,
Grandma Tzeitel (again, Stern) and the butcher’s dead wife, Fruma-Sarah (Joy
Hermalyn). It’s a wild, audience-pleasing ride.

If there is any “problem” with
“Fiddler” it is that the second act is markedly darker, for change brings pain.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel down which the Jews are traveling
as they leave Anatevka, but the audience is well aware of what that tunnel will
wind through before any of these people reach that light. What saves the
musical, and especially this production, from the darkness is Tevye’s humanity
and spirit, qualities that Heller brings forth in all of their shining yet
somewhat tarnished reality. As Tevye lifts his cart and begins to trudge off
into the unknown we can’t help but wish him “God’s speed.”

“Fiddler on the Roof” has been
extended through Sept. 12. For tickets or more information call 860.873.8668 or
visit: www.goodspeed.org.